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Il Terribile Pescecane
Or The Terrible Dogfish A flash of light and sound of thunder awoke Penny. Her eyes flicked open and soon adjusted to the sporadic darkness and flickering lights. A quicksilver storm had come and with it Penny's opportunity to escape. The heavy metal drops drummed on the roof and rang out clear chimes as they impacted the windows. From within her sleeve she retrieved a jagged snowflake, wrapped with silk to protect her hands. Penny stifled a startled noise as she saw a face leering out of the mirrored surface of the snowflake, only to curse herself for a fool when she realized it was her reflection. With awkward movements, she began to saw at the marionette strings that suspended her from the ceiling for this night's rest. Despite the height of the fall, she landed with all the grace and ease she was designed for. Penny crept to a nearby cabinet, quite glad that the hinges had been recently oiled as it silently opened. She quickly grabbed a raincoat and satchel stuffed with goblin-cakes. “Thank you for hiding these, Timothy,” she whispered, giving the cabinet an affectionate rub along the grain. The cabinet gave a soft creak that sounded appreciative. Once at the door, Penny leaned close to it and softly asked, “Dora, would you please let me out?” The massive door gave a slight shudder and began to unlock. The heavy 'thunks' as the bolts slide out of place was drowned out by the thunder. Penny squeezed through the bare opening provided by the door and onto the porch. Avoiding the third step from the top, she began to run out into the rain. The heavy liquid metal drops thudding against her coat lessened when she reached the cover provided by the white forest. An hour later, Penny found herself exhausted. Running through the muddied ground, constantly bombarded by the weight of the rain, the sleep spurned for this opportunity, and the stress clawing at her mind conspired to force her to rest. Reaching a clearing, she sat, and fought to keep her eyes open. She failed, for just a moment to her, but to the rest of the world, time had passed and the quicksilver level had risen over her feet. The rumbling thunder of the stones under her feet shifting and grinding had woken her, and increased in intensity as she shook the cobwebs from her mind. The vibrations traveled up her feet to rattle her teeth. In a stark moment of terror, Penny realized she was too close to the center of the thunder-crack. A few yards away the stone beneath the ground snapped. The lightning, freed from the stone, burst up from the ground and blazed up into the air. The electricity spider-webbed out through the quicksilver, the shock knocking Penny off of her feet and against a tree. The lightning climbed higher and higher before arcing out over the clearing. Penny feared the light of the electricity had burned itself into her eyes, for it would not fade. Slowly her eyes compensated, and a flash of lightning elsewhere illuminated the frozen form of the lightning before her. The tendrils that had spread throughout the quicksilver were now firmly anchored white roots, the main body a towering and jagged trunk of porcelain, and the arcs spread over the clearing branches that screened Penny from the worst of the rain. Penny took a moment to digest that the porcelain trees were born of lightning and thunder. As she digested, she consumed a goblin-cake and mentally prepared to continue her escape. Wide awake from the shock, if also sore, she ran through the woods with renewed energy. As she left the confines of the woods the rain lessened and drizzled to a stop. The moon burst forth from the clouds, illuminating a wide mercury flooded field populated by a lone cabin. Penny gingerly stepped into the field, finding the quicksilver only went up to her ankles. An uncomfortable but easily traversed obstacle. Halfway to the cabin, Penny felt the quicksilver begin to rise all the way up to her knees. Confused, she peered around. To her horror, some massive form was displacing the mercury around her. Parts of it would breach the surface, towering over her as streams of quicksilver ran off of its piscine scales, before descending back into what should have been less than a foot of liquid. As the beast got closer, the ground simply nonexistent as it approached, causing Penny to bob on the surface of the viscous liquid. With strength born from terror, Penny swam for the cabin, crawling as she got closer to it and farther from whatever effect the creature had on depth. Once inside she pleaded with the door to lock, more for peace of mind than any actual hope that a door would stop such a leviathan. Penny stood at the window and saw nothing of her pursuer. The quicksilver was calm, the moon bright, and no sign of the piscine monster that had pursued her. And then there was no moon. Great and terrible jaws rose up from the surface and engulfed the cabin whole and leaving Penny no light. The building was turned upside down as the beast presumably dived deeper and deeper. Penny, curled around ceiling lamp, despaired. Far better to be in the grasp of the Master than in the bowels of a terror only glimpsed, so that her mind filled in the blanks. Several minutes later, each one stretching a day to the frenzied mind of Penny, the beast settled at the Bottom. The cabin now lay on its side, square on the door, leaving Penny no way out. So Penny slept. She had fitful dreams of fish with the heads of dogs baying at her in the moonlight, hunting her across fields where snowflakes cut her feet to crimson ribbons that unraveled and spread out behind her. The sound of glass breaking awoke her and she spied a shattered window burning with lantern light and a rope leading out. Climbing out through the window, cautious to the point of paranoia about cutting her self on the glass, Penny's heart dropped when she saw her savior. Philippe. The Rat-man gave her a bow, one head's eyes never looking away from her. “Good evenin' mademoiselle. I couldn't help but notice that you have gotten yourself in a spot of trouble durin' your evenin' walk. I figured I would be of service. It's far easier to get trapped inside of the Terrible Dogfish than it is to get untrapped.” Penny, horrified at the prospect of owing Philippe a favor, attempted to dash around him, to find whatever entrance he had come through, but it seems Philippe was a tad bit faster, stronger, and quick witted than she had remembered him, and worse, more willing to strike her across the face. “Now, now, no need to run anymore, it's just a short walk out. And then we can talk about payment for services rendered? Hmm?” Stunned, Penny allowed him to lead her to a massive mirror situated firmly between the ribs of the beast. Reaching into his breast pocket, the Rat pulled out a pair of glasses that his heads bickered over which should get to wear. Penny's eyes grew wide when she saw the blue star within the lenses. The Master's glasses. The Rat must have stolen them. Which meant that Penny could too. With the glasses now placed onto the snout of one of the two heads, the Rat ran his finger down the center of the mirror, causing it to split in two and swing open, leading to the Sun room of the house. Penny had gone full circle. But now a little wiser, a little more knowledgeable. The cost of this knowledge however, being one Favor, and nightmares for years to come. Characters involved in this Chronicle: Penny, Pat Takahashi Category:Fiction